Vanderbilt coach helped build Xavier's program

Mar 20, 2010 - 8:25 PM
By JOE KAY
AP Sports Writer

CINCINNATI(AP) -- Coach Melanie Balcomb and her black-suited
Vanderbilt players walked out of the bright, morning sunshine
into the shaded back loading dock of the Cintas Center, a place
most of them were entering for the first time.

Not Balcomb. A decade ago, she got the building - and Xavier's
program - off the ground.

She had many great moments in the 10,250-seat arena that is the
home court for Xavier's nationally prominent women's and men's
basketball teams. On Saturday, she was back at a place that was
tough to leave.

"I knew it would be difficult to come back," Balcomb said. "I
have great memories here."

Balcomb took the Musketeers to the Elite Eight during the
arena's opening season in 2001, the best NCAA tournament run in
school history. She has returned with Vanderbilt (22-10), which
plays DePaul (2-11) in the first round on Sunday.

The fifth-ranked Musketeers (27-3) play East Tennessee State
(23-8) in the later game, looking for their first NCAA
tournament win since that 2001 season. They've lost in the first
round each of the last three years.

"Our history - we got put out the past three years," said Amber
Harris, the Atlantic 10's player of the year. "But we're not
thinking about that. We're just thinking about right now."

Just like Balcomb.

The Musketeers are 0-4 in the tournament since that 2001 run
under Balcomb. That's one of the final breakthroughs left for a
team that has accumulated them all season.

Xavier became only the second A-10 team to go undefeated in the
regular season and win the conference tournament, too. The
Musketeers' No. 5 ranking is the highest ever for a Xavier men's
or women's team. Their No. 3 seed in the tournament also is the
best yet.

The university wanted to host the first and second rounds of the
NCAA tournament, knowing it had a special team coming along that
could make the most of home-court advantage.

"They have a real sense of 'our time is now,' and I think you're
going to see them play incredibly hard," coach Kevin McGuff
said. "It's been fun to see them grow this year, and this is
their moment and I think they're ready for it."

They have a pronounced front-line advantage against East
Tennessee State, which is 0-2 in the tournament. The 14th-seeded
Lady Bucs don't have a player taller than 6-foot-3, which
presents a problem trying to guard Ta'Shia Phillips - Xavier's
6-foot-6 career rebound leader - and the Harris, a 6-foot-5
forward who plays like a guard.

"Ta'Shia is probably going to see a lot of people tomorrow
because we're going to surround her," coach Karen Kemp said.

Last year, Harris tried to return for the tournament after knee
surgery wiped out her regular season. The knee wasn't up to it,
so she had to sit and watch.

She's at full strength - and inspired - to help Xavier get over
that first-round wall.

"It was hard to watch last year, and this year it will be
different because I'm healthy now and I feel really good, really
excited about it," she said.

Balcomb built the foundation for Xavier to get to this point.
Xavier's win over Tennessee during the 2001 tournament was
noticed by Vanderbilt, which hired her a year later. McGuff has
coached Xavier to five NCAA appearances in his eight years,
taking the program to unprecedented heights.

Balcomb does a lot of recruiting in the Cincinnati area - two of
her players are from the town - but had been back to the Cintas
Center only once since she left, for the Hall of Fame induction
of a former player. She felt at home on Saturday in an arena she
helped fashion.

"This is like building my first house," she said. "We got to
design everything. Now we've done the same thing at Vanderbilt.
It was a learning experience as a coach and an interior
designer. It was a great experience for my next job. I use those
experiences on and off the court to help me at Vanderbilt."

DePaul has a streak of eight straight NCAA tournament
appearances, one that was in danger after the Blue Demons were
blown out by Connecticut and Notre Dame in mid-February. They
won five of their last six and got a No. 11 seed.

"At that point in time, we basically had to win the rest of our
games," junior forward Felicia Chester said. "Each game we would
say we were fighting for our NCAA lives."